Eyes on Toronto city hall for latest response from Ford camp in video scandal

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Toronto city hall will be watched closely Tuesday to see if Mayor Rob Ford’s camp responds to allegations that he was recorded on video appearing to smoke crack cocaine.

The mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, told a Vancouver radio station (CKNW) this past weekend that he would respond today to reports regarding the alleged footage.

It’s not known if the mayor himself will be back at work this morning.

The Toronto Star and the U.S.-based website Gawker.com reported the controversial video story last week, stating they had separately viewed the cellphone footage which they claimed appears to show Ford smoking crack.

On Friday, Ford slammed the Toronto Star report on the video as a smear job and called it “ridiculous,” while his lawyer Dennis Morris called the reports “false and defamatory.”

Morris told The Canadian Press on Sunday that he had not received any instructions from Ford about launching legal action against the Star and Gawker, saying the matter was in “pause” until it’s known whether a video will become public.

The media outlets reported the video was shown to them by an alleged drug dealer who has been reportedly trying to sell the video for at least $100,000. Gawker has been trying to crowdsource $200,000 to buy and publicly post the footage and had raised $84,839 by early Tuesday.